Accessibility Options on Chromebooks

How to Enable Accessibility Options In Chrome OS

To enable accessibility options in Chrome OS, go to settings and search accessibility. You can also access them by going to Settings > Advanced Options > Accessibility.

Following accessibility features are available in Chrome OS

Show accessibility options in the systems menu

Enable spoken feedback

Enable high contrast

Enable screen magnifier

Enable tap dragging

Show Accessibility Options In The Systems Menu

What is the systems menu on Chrome OS? It is that small popup menu that you get when you click the right end of your taskbar, ie the place where you see time, battery and your profile icon etc. It is at the bottom right corner by default.

If you enable “Show accessibility options in systems menu” option, accessibility options will be available on this popup menu. The new Accessibility menu contains the following:

Spoken feedback

High contrast

Screen magnifier

This gives quick access to these accessibility options right from the systems menu.

Enable Spoken Feedback From Login Screen

If you need accessibility right from the login screen, you can enable spoken feedback using the following keyboard shortcut.

Ctrl+Alt+Z

How Spoken Feedback Works

From the Chrome OS help website:

On the sign-in screen, the user name field and password prompts are spoken. Your password is not echoed when you enter it for security reasons.

Once you’re signed in, the Chrome OS screenreader, ChromeVox, is activated. With ChromeVox active, you get spoken feedback for all user actions (e.g. browsing menus, opening webpages).

ChromeVox provides a set of keyboard commands you can use to navigate Chrome menus and webpages. You can navigate web content in a variety of ways. For example, pressing the arrow keys while holding down the Shift and Search keys moves through the elements on the current page and speaks them intelligently as they are traversed. If you’re using an external keyboard (on a Chromebook or Chromebox), the shortcut keys are Shift and Windows key

Chromevox Suit of Accessibility Options for Chrome

ChromeVox is a screen reader for Chrome which brings the speed, versatility, and security of Chrome to visually impaired users. Here is a video explaining the features of this extension.

I am not an expert on accessibility, so I have limited this article to basic information to get you started. If you have more information to share with others, feel free to use the comment form or contact me on G+ or via email.